NIME Pioneering Electronic Music

NIME, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, is an extraordinary conference and festival examining the potential of electronics in music, recently on display at Goldsmiths, University of London.

In a special edition of Click, Gareth Mitchell and LJ Rich report on the novel ways of making music that have been demonstrated at NIME in partnership with the Beam Festival.

The performances at NIME/Beam include: hacking heads-up display technology with a Theremin; pedal-powered music in a soundscape located in a park; and ghostly traces of an actual musical performance rendered virtually on a piano. There is also a demonstration and performance of the Lady's Glove by Laetitia Sonami, one of the key pioneers of wearable technology and music.

(Photo: Composer, performer, and sound installation artist Laetitia Sonami demonstrates her signature instrument, the Lady's Glove, a device that control sounds and creates a unique audio-visual experience – used with the kind permission of Laetitia Sonami)